Jenga
by AwesomePossum123
Summary: Playing Jenga with the Doctor is very serious business and should be treated as such, Rose Tyler finds out. Who will win the battle of wooden blocks and wits?


"The bloody door is locked!" Rose groaned, spinning around on her heels to face the Doctor who was nervously tugging at his hair.

Today had not been their greatest day. They were on the planet Bluzan, when they had been attacked by the locals and thrown into this room, awaiting future interrogation. Luckily, the aliens were unadvanced in their technology and had barely developed the knife. Due to the Doctor's screwdriver being unable to work on wood, they were trapped in a small room with only a poorly made stone table and a large wood box.

"Er... Sorry?" The Doctor tried, giving Rose his best puppy-dog eyes.

"They'll probably keep us here for a while, and I'm starving! What are we going to do here for hours on end?"

"Well..." He opened the black box and searched through its dusty contents. "They have this!" The Doctor pulled up a cylindrical box with wooden cubes inside and alien writing on the outside of the box.

"What's it say? It's not translating," Rose said, sitting down on one side of the table on the rock-stool.

"It's like... What do you call it on Earth? Um... The game with the blocks?" He stared blankly at Rose and she shrugged. "You know, you build the little tower and try to keep it balanced?"

"Jenga?" She suggested.

"Yes! Jenga! It's Jenga. Want to play?"

"Doctor..." Rose groaned. "We're stuck in a room waiting to be interrogated by short little aliens with pointy sticks and you want to play their version of Jenga?"

"Well if you'd rather sit here in complete silence and stare at each other then let's do that instead," He sassed.

"Fine... Let's play Jenga. Do you know the rules?"

"I think so, although we never had it on Gallifrey. You take the rectangular blocks and build a tower out of them, three blocks wide, and then take turns pulling out a block without it toppling. After you pull out the block, you put it on top and continue building the tower upwards so that it gets taller and taller."

"Yep, that's it. Let's build the tower!" Rose said happily. If the Doctor hadn't played Jenga before, she'd definitely win. And winning against the Doctor would probably be hilarious.

The two built the tower quickly, stacking the blocks on top of one another and trying to get it as straight as possible. When Rose was satisfied with the tower, she leaned back in her chair and watched as the Doctor continued adjusting it piece by piece. "Hold on, I just want to get it perfect..." He mumbled.

"Doctor, it's fine, let's just play." She replied, rubbing her hands together.

"Alright... Prepare to lose," The Doctor smirked, nodding for her to go first.

Rose pulled the side piece from the very bottom out and twirled it around in her hand before setting it on top casually. "Piece of cake."

"Starting with the bottom are we? Hmm..." He leaned in close to the tower and stared at it closely for a while.

"What are you doing?"

"Measuring... Nope now calculating the exact distance between... Nope now I'm-"

"Just pull out a piece!"

"You never said there was a time limit," He muttered, pulling out a piece from the middle of the tower and putting it on top. "Beat that!"

Rose sighed and pulled out another block. "You'll never win you know."

"In your dreams."

They continued like this for a long time until eventually the tower was stripped completely bare. The entire structure was supported by one block on the bottom, and was wobbling quietly. Rose squinted her eyes as she cautiously pulled out a piece from the middle and smiled when the tower stayed upright. She placed it on top and looked at the Doctor triumphantly. "You pull out that block and you're going to lose, guaranteed."

"Confident, are we? Give me a few minutes here..." The Doctor focused on the tower again, eyes moving up and down it at a stunning pace. "Nine thousand and fifty four divided by twelve... Minus... Yep. Wait, now let me calculate this one... Rose, do you have a piece of paper and a pencil?"

Rose raised an eyebrow, "No papers and pencils in Jenga. Besides, can't you do the math in your head with your almighty Time-Lord brain?" She mocked him, smirking.

"Of course I can!" He replied a little too fast. "In fact, I just did. And I'm going to pull this one." The Doctor put his index finger on a block near the bottom and prodded it a little. It didn't budge at all. He put his thumb on the other side of the block and slowly pulled it outwards, his teeth baring as he placed all his focus on the game. "There! HAH! You're going to lose!"

"What are you, five? And no I'm totally not going to lose!" She replied, searching the tower for a good block to pull. Eventually, she found one that was on his side, and stood up from the table to walk around. However, he refused to move from his chair so she could get closer to the block. "Uh, excuse me."

"There's nothing in the rules that says I have to move..." He smiled devilishly at her and stuck his tongue out.

"You want to go there?" Rose walked back to her side and sat in her seat again, placing her finger against one of the blocks that had nothing next to it, supporting the entire top of the tower.

"You can't pull that out," He pointed out, "There's nothing next to it. It'll fall."

"Oh yeah? Watch and learn."

Rose suddenly yanked the block out of its place and watched as the rest of the blocks miraculously fell into position without tumbling over the tower. The Doctor's jaw dropped as the tower stopped wobbling and Rose easily placed her block on top. "I didn't know you could do that!"

"Should've done the math in your head like I did," She joked back.

"Alright, well, my turn... Let's see here... Um..."

"You don't have a chance! There's not even a block to pull!"

The Doctor ran a hand through his hair nervously and scratched the back of the neck, trying desperately to find a block to move. Even if he did the trick Rose had done, which obviously he could since he was so brilliant, it would still collapse. Not that he'd tell her that, of course. He met her eyes and saw her mischievous glare. He had to win this. With the upmost caution, he placed his fingers on the very bottom block that was supporting the entire tower. They both held their breath as he was about to start pulling when suddenly...

SLAM!

The entire tower collapsed on the Doctor's hand as a guard entered the room. "My apologies, there has been a mistake. You may leave now, sorry to have kept you here." An alien said to them from the doorway.

"I WAS GOING TO WIN!" Rose shouted at the alien. "GO AWAY! WE'RE PLAYING AGAIN! COME GET US IN A HALF HOUR!"

The Doctor's eyes widened when the alien nodded quickly and left the room, leaving them with just a table covered in Jenga blocks. "You weren't going to win," He stated after they both nonchalantly began rebuilding the tower.

"Was to."

"Was not."

"Was to."

"Was not."

"Was to."

"Don't argue with your designated driver!"

* * *

**A/N:** Hi guys! I hope you enjoyed this cute 10/Rose one-shot! I had the idea in my head for a bit and thought hey, I'll write it. Please review and tell me if you'd like more one-shots like this! Thanks!


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